Twitter has agreed to pay $150 million in civil penalties as part of a deal resolving allegations that the social media giant failed to sufficiently protect users’ data privacy to the standards of a 2011 agreement, according to a joint announcement Wednesday by the The U.S. Department of Justice and the Federal Trade Commission.
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The settlement will conclude the decade-long saga after the regulatory agencies alleged that Twitter violated the FTC Act as well as an administrative order issued by the FTC in March 2011 by purposefully misrepresenting its use of nonpublic contact information collected from its users. The deal is pending approval by a federal court.
“Consumers who share their private information have a right to know if that information is being used to help advertisers target customers,” U.S. Attorney Stephanie M. Hinds of the Northern District of California said in a statement. “Social media companies that are not honest with consumers about how their personal information is being used will be held accountable.”
Twitter persuaded more than 140 million users to provide their email addresses and telephone numbers based on “deceptive statements” that their personal information would be used to improve account security, but failed to disclose that it would also be used to help companies target them with advertisements, the complaint states.
“Twitter has prompted users to provide a telephone number or email address for the express purpose of securing or authenticating their Twitter accounts,” according to the complaint. “However, through at least September 2019, Twitter also used this information to serve targeted advertising and further its own business interests.”
The agreement also includes requirements that the social media company implement various compliance measures to further protect user data privacy in the future.
“The $150 million penalty reflects the seriousness of the allegations against Twitter, and the substantial new compliance measures to be imposed as a result of today’s proposed settlement will help prevent further misleading tactics that threaten users’ privacy,” Associate Attorney General Vanita Gupta said in the announcement.
“Twitter’s commitment to security and privacy is not a point-in-time exercise for us but a core value we constantly enhance by updating our practices to meet the evolving needs of our customers,” Twitter Chief Privacy Officer Damien Kieran wrote on the company’s site Wednesday. “We will continue to make investments in this work, including building and evolving processes, implementing technical measures, and conducting regular auditing and reporting to ensure we are mitigating risk at every level and function at Twitter.”
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Source: https://www.law360.com/articles/1497104/twitter-agrees-to-pay-150m-in-doj-ftc-data-privacy-deal
